In Raj first list featuring Gehlot, Pilot, Cong eyes a balancing act

JAIPUR: The Congress released its first list of 152 candidates featuring top leaders on Thursday night after days of discussions and a marathon six-hour meeting of the central election committee (CEC), the panel that finalises the party’s nominees for all polls.

The Congress has fielded its top leaders, including former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and state unit chief Sachin Pilot, projecting a united front against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 200 seats in the Rajasthan assembly. The list includes two sitting and eight former members of Parliament, including Pilot.

The state goes to polls on December 7.

The remaining 48 candidates are expected to be announced soon, given that November 19 is the last day for the filing of nomination papers in the desert state where votes will be counted on December 11, together with those cast in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Telangana.

The first list shows the Congress fielded 73 candidates who lost the 2013 assembly elections, in which the BJP won 163 seats. The Congress registered victories in 21 seats five years ago. The opposition party’s strength in the assembly has since increased by four after by-poll wins.

Twenty-eight leaders who were ministers or parliamentary secretaries in the previous Congress government (2008-13) led by Gehlot made the cut in Thursday’s list, but three sitting MLAs were dropped. The Congress list has 46 new faces and 18 women.

The BJP has so far released two lists of 162 candidates, including 19 women. It has denied tick- ets to 43 legislators, including four ministers, amid talk of anti-incumbency. The BJP has not fielded anyone from the minority community in its two lists, while the Congress has named nine.

Two-time Congress parliamentarian Pilot, 41, will contest his first assembly election from Tonk. News agency PTI quoted Pilot as saying, “Tonk is a good seat for me to contest... Since I announced to contest the elections, there were requests from 13 to 14 districts and the party decided Tonk. We will win significant number of seats .”

Gehlot, 67, is seeking re-nomination for the fifth time from the Sardarpura constituency in Jodhpur.

Some of the other senior leaders in the Congress list are former Union ministers CP Joshi from Nathdwara (Udaipur) and Girija Vyas from Udaipur (City), and leader of the opposition in the Rajasthan assembly, Rameshwar Dudi, from Nokha (Bikaner).